Real Life

Back on Taquile Island
The vacation was wonderful, yet back to real life on Taquile is the best.

We are still trading solar equipment for the excellent quality Taquileño textiles. Sometimes this gives us an opportunity to make friends with another lovely child.

Estefani (age 2 1/2) with Sam

School will start soon, so the kids head up a volley-ball game almost every afternoon.

Eufrasia goes for the ball, skirts and all.

Our big project was to install enough solar power to run a refrigerator in the store that Delfin and Eufrasia have, just across the path from the high school and near the elementary school. The taller panel is an excellent 80W, a couple of years old. The other two are 85W each, brand new. Probably the total will be 240W. He has been selling icecream from an ice chest. Now a cloudy day of less demand will not destroy the profits. Other options are grand. I believe that besides the Medical Center, this is the only refrigeration on the Island.

We visit the Plaza and hike to the highest point on Taquile, the ceremonial site of Mulcina, almost every day.

Visits to family members and friends are a special kind of hike. Mercedez is 96 years old and has lived her live in this high altitude sun. She still walks and works a bit in her field and sometimes weaves.

Grandma Mercedez with Silvano